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Beijing Winter Olympics 2022
SportChina

Winter Olympics: Eileen Gu broke Chinese social media with Big Air gold medal win – but her best event has yet to come

  • The 18-year-old stunned the reigning X Games Big Air champ to claim gold after landing risky trick against her mother’s wishes
  • ‘I don’t want to think about the next two events … I just want to soak it all in’ Gu says before potential half-pipe and slopestyle bonanza

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Eileen Gu of China after winning the women’s freestyle skiing Big Air final event at the Beijing Winter Olympic Games. Photo: DPA
Andrew McNicolandAgence France-Presse
Chinese fans are still basking in star freeskier Eileen Gu’s glorious Beijing Winter Games gold medal – and the big air is not even considered her strongest event.
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The US-born 18-year-old, who landed her first left double cork 1620 on the way to winning the Olympics’ inaugural big air event on Tuesday, has been touted as a heavy favourite in the half-pipe event from February 17 to 18.

Gu should also contend for a podium finish in the slopestyle on February 13 and 14, meaning she could leave Genting Snow Park with an unprecedented three Olympic freeski medals. No freeskier has won Winter Olympic medals in three different disciplines.

Eileen Gu of China in the women’s freestyle skiing Big Air qualification event at the Beijing Winter Olympic Games. Photo: AP
Eileen Gu of China in the women’s freestyle skiing Big Air qualification event at the Beijing Winter Olympic Games. Photo: AP

“I don’t want to think about the next two events, I am a very fast-paced person, so I just want to soak it all in,” Gu said.

Having already made history for China at the X Games, world championships and World Cup series last year, another Olympic medal would only further cement her place as the mainland’s ultimate snow sports poster girl.

“Going into it, I kind of told myself that it was a win-win situation because if I didn’t land it, I was walking away with a bronze medal and I would have felt like that I had really laid it out there,” said an emotional Gu post-Big Air win.

“I did everything that I possibly could and I sent a message out to the world about my character, my spirit, and my mission, which has always been to break my own boundaries.

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